Adventure Time first premiered in 2010 and at first everyone thought it was going to be some dumb little cartoon about a kid and his dog, But no, the rabbit-hole goes much deeper than that. I'M IN TOO DEEP! (Intro Music) In short, Adventure Time is a show about this kid Finn and his magical dog jake going on Wacky adventures in the land of OOO But it's also like this deep story about post-apocalyptic worlds and abandonment and life and death. It's great guys. It's great (and hella gay) But as the show progressed and slowly revealed as hardcore themes, it explored a lot of other things including the relationship between Princess bubblegum And Marceline the vampire queen. Princess bubblegum is this genius scientist/princess. Who's friends with finn and Jake. And Marceline is a half vampire, half Demon that tormented them at first, But after 11 minutes, befriended the Duo. (Yay) At first not many people thought much of Princess Bubblegum and Marceline's relationship. The first interaction between Princess Bubblegum and Marceline is in the episode "Go with me" in which Marceline and Finn try to make Bubblegum jealous so she'd go to the movies with him. And the first time they interact, it's all hostility. And given what we know about them up to this episode, you just think, "Oh well, Princess Bubblegum is the nice one, and Marceline is the mean one, so OF COURSE they're rivals!" Well, no. (NANI?!) It wasn't until the episode "What was Missing" that we started to see something more. In the episode, this guy called the door lord is stealing items that mean a lot to people. And then he hides behind this door. Turns out the door will only open to, THE TRUTH. Finn- The truth! Marceline gives it a go, and her singing starts with her distaste for Bubblegum. Marceline- ♫Ladadadada, I'm gonna bury you in the ground, Ladadadada, I'm gonna bury you with my sound I'm gonna, drink the red from your pretty pink face.♫ And then it starts hitting a little too close to home. Marceline- Oh... You don't like that? Or do you just not like me?! ♫I'm just your problem I'm just your problem. Its like I'm not, even a person, am I? I'm just your problem Well, I shouldn't have to justify what I do I shouldn't have to prove anything to you. Finn- It's working! Look at the door! But I shouldn't have to be the one that makes up with you so, Why do I want to? Why do I want to?♫ To... Bury you in the ground? At which point the door stops believing Marceline, and it stops working all together. We're suddenly introduced to a deeper relationship between the two characters. A relationship that has apparently been broken and needs fixing. Not only that, but Marceline wants to amend this past relationship, even though she's still a bit sour about it. Marceline- ♫I shouldn't have to be the one to make up with you, so, Why do I want to? So later after singing about *FRIENDSHIP* they gain entrance into the door and take back the sentimental items that had been stolen from them. And what was it that had been stolen from Princess Bubblegum? (Jeopardy music) Marceline- You... Kept the shirt I gave you? PB- Yeah.. It uh... means a lot to me. ^w^ Why, only the shirt that Marceline gave her, and apparently it means a lot to her. Enough for it to be her sentimental item. The episode soon ends, and after this, Each episode featuring them would sprinkle small amounts of subtext here and there and a whole history of their relationship would begin to appear. As far as we know, from all the snippets in the show, Marceline and Bubblegum have a history. It seems like they dated in the past, broke up, and now are in the aftermath of their relationship. However, we can still see that they feel a great deal for each other. In the episode "Sky Witch" they're more friendly with each other. And PB is helping Marceline get her old stuffed animal friend, Hambo, from a witch. (Maja) The witch doesn't want to give back Hambo, because Hambo's emotional attachments have a lot of power. However, PB makes a deal with the witch and instead trades (More Jeopardy music) The shirt the Marceline gave her for a gift. Maja- "I made a trade. For this!" BING! MMMMMMM Sentimental FRESHNESS! Ohhh, the psychic resonance on Hambo is NUTHING Compared to this baby!" (Maja almost dies) Because it has just that much more emotional power. Also, daily reminder that Princess Bubblegum literally SNIFFED THE SHIRT at the beginning of the episode. I mean, I'm all for platonic sniffing, but I've never personally encountered it myself. We see that Princess Bubblegum is a carefully prepared person. She's maternal. We see that with her kingdom, the Candy Kingdom, and as she expresses it with her brother. And the episode "Varmints" we're given a closer glimpse into her and Marceline's past. They're walking through an old tunnel, reminiscing over the memories they shared together, and go over the conflicts that may have broken them apart. For one, Marceline makes fun of the way that PB is always prepared for everything, being the type A that she is, and bubblegum replied with quite the loaded outburst. Marceline- "Remember you jumped across this! You were so scared." PB- "Mm, I think I was just trying to prove something." (Electrical noises) Marceline- "Bonnibel Bubblegum, always SO prepared!" PB- "Yeah, I have to be 'Always so prepared' We can't all just wing it." (Awkward tension) And although they made a good pair in the past, they have certain differences. Marceline is obviously the more rough one, who usually solves a problem in uncoordinated conflict. And she also has an influence over Bubblegum, like when Marceline dared her to vandalize the wall Marcy also brought out her wild side, as we hear her talk about how she was only crossing the bridge to "Prove something" Marceline- "Whoa, the Broken Bridge!" Remember? You jumped across this! You were SO scared." PB- "Mm, I think I was just trying to prove something." What was she trying to prove? That she could be rough and tough just for Marceline? Marceline- "Bonnibel Bubblegum, always SO prepared." PB- "Yeah, I have to be 'Always so prepared' We can't all just wing it. (More awkward tension) "I didn't have to always worry about so many things, you know? The Candy Kingdom used to be so small, so manageable. Then it kept growing, and growing, and there was always some new disaster to prepare against." Marceline- "Is that why you stopped talking to me?" PB- "No, I-" And soon, there gay history unfolds, with Bubblegum getting so caught up in her work, that she ended up not having time for relationships or anything else. And Marceline reluctantly asks if that's why Princess Bubblegum stopped talking to her. Marceline doesn't really know why PB suddenly started to hate her. She sings in her song, "I'm just your problem" About how PB is avoiding her, and that she doesn't know why she ended up on PB's blacklist. She wants to make up with Princess Bubblegum, and now she's finding out that PB just got carried away with work. And although they had their differences, the real problem seemed to come out as PB begins to cry. (PB crying) Marceline- "Hey, hey hey, whoa, wait. I didn't mean... I like your handwriting, I think it's really pretty." PB- "I-It's not that... I lost my hat." Marceline- "Well, we can get you another hat?" PB- "I lost my hat, lost my home, lost my people, I can't even keep darn varmints out of my pumpkin patch." Marceline- "Oh, Bonnie, your-" PB- "I tried... I really, really tried. I just, I thought that if I shut everything out and just focused on work it would all be okay. And look where that landed me. All I managed to do is push everyone away.
I pushed you away. I'm sorry Marceline." Marceline has issues with abandonment. Her father left her, Simon left her, she spent a lot of her life on her own. And for PB to leave her like everyone else is probably a sad confirmation for her. But recently, they've been making up and reconciling what they had. For anyone to do this with Marceline, and come back after leaving her is something extremely rare and emotional. At the end of the episode, PB falls asleep on Marcy's shoulder, and it's beautifully romantic. Although they're different, they're like two pieces of a puzzle. Princess Bubblegum said something about our differences that we should take to heart. PB- "People get built different. We don't need to figure it out, we just need to respect it." Princess Bubblegum has recently quit ruling the Candy Kingdom to figure herself out, and as we soon find out, Marceline seeks maturity, too. And that brings us to the miniseries, "Stakes" Which was very primarily focused on Marceline and was also very non-platonic. In the series, Marceline decides that the vampire life wasn't at ALL what she read in Twilight and decides that it's not for her. (Kill me) Marceline- "Some bad things happened to me when I was little. When I became a vampire, I was just a messed up kid. Now it's a thousand years later, and I'm STILL messed up. I don't want to spend eternity like this. With this, Emptiness. I want to grow up." Princess Bubblegum has a procedure that can help Marceline become human, and as a human, Marceline will experience all the emotions that come with it, like ♡Love♡ 🌢Sadness🌢 and frustration that the UK actually decided to leave the European union. It also means that Marcy is going to die one day, which is a real tearjerker for PB. PB- "This means someday, you'll die. You know that, right?" Marceline- "I guess that'll be my last adventure." PB- "Marceline, I'm so very, VERY, V E R Y, excited to test my new lab out on you." (BAMBOOZLED) Marceline- "Well, don't get all sentimental on me." Well, we get it. So I'm not going to go into the plot of stakes, but they're basically fighting vampires that have been revived, I guess? Marceline goes through a maturation process, physically and mentally. She also experiences new emotions. She confuses hunger for love, Marceline- "Ah, I have this weird feeling in my tums. Maybe it's, love?" But that's pretty understandable, since my love for food transcends TiMe AnD sPaCe. It's understandable that she only vaguely remembers love and compassion. She only felt those things about a thousand years ago, and has only felt the vampire version after that, whatever the, vampire version may be, EDWARD CULLEN. and she knows what love is, so isn't it interesting that when she's with Princess Bubblegum, that's the moment she suspects to feel loved? 🤔 I N T E R E S T I N G 🤔 Stakes is a good exploration of Marceline as a character, and of course, if it's about Marceline, Princess Bubblegum is gonna be involved. And she is! (Yay) Near the series' end, there's some hardcore themes that they talk about, which goes something like this: The Vampire King- "Marceline, I know I was ruthless in the past, but tell me, what's the one thing you've noticed about the world since you beat me all those hundreds of years ago? Marceline- "Everything repeats over and over again. No one learns anything, because no one lives long enough to see the pattern, I guess." And when Marceine is kinda *Spoilers Ahead* dying, she sees this weird version of her and Princess Bubblegum living together, with forehead kisses and everything. Marceline- ♫"You used to call them weeds. And you kill them all,"♫ People, please, how does no one see how domestic and beautiful this is? Guys she's dying and having a vision of her and her ex-girlfriend living happily ever after, how is this not a thi- Marceline eventually beats the vampires, and fighting them helped her grow as a person. She feels more mature. And everything goes back to normal. Bubblegum is princess again, Marceline becomes a vampire again. But, even if everything's the same it's still different. Marceline gained experience, her relationship with Princess bubblegum is changing. Marceline- "Nah, I'm cool being a vampire again. Being Mortal was good, but at the same time it was terrifying. Now I'm a vampire with fresh mortal memories, and I don't know. More empathy or something? More grown-up. Bonnie, thank you for helping me grow up. Now I guess we get to hang out together forever. The song Marceline sings at the end, which was her mother's lullaby, sums it up well. Marceline- ♫"Everything stays right where you left it. Everything stays, but it still changes. Ever so slightly, daily and nightly, in little ways, when everything stays."♫ And from then on, we're back to getting the teasing hints that we've always been getting, and although the Adventure Time writers have not denied the existence of bubbline, They haven't confirmed it either, but it's understandable why. As I see it, this pairing is canon. It's plain and simple, canon. But the show creators aren't allowed to show any of it, at least right now. Adventure Time Airs in a lot of countries were showing same-sex couples on television is illegal. and if Cartoon Network loses these countries, it will NOT be good for them. It almost got out that Marceline and Bubblegum had dated in the past. During a panel, Olivia Olson, the voice of Marceline, stated that the creator of the show, Pendleton Ward, had told her that Marceline and Princess Bubblegum had dated before. Olivia Olson- "No, I wanted to ask him a lot of questions about this, and he's trying to write the book and stuff, so I want to keep Penn's brain on all of it, and, um, and he said, 'Oh, You know they dated, right?'" HALLELUJAH!! Yeah, it's a sad thing and Cartoon Network can't really do anything about it because they can't afford to have one of their most popular shows Banned in a bunch of countries with dumb laws. They can't confirm it, and that's why we still have people in Youtube comments saying, "WeLL i PeRsOnAllY bElIeVe ThAt ThEy WeRe JuSt ClOsE fRiEnDs BeCaUsE i SaY sO!" Recently though, I've been seeing a trend with kids shows and same-gender couples. A lot of shows will reveal their LGBT characters right at the very end of their shows, because at that point they have nothing to lose. It happened with "Gravity Falls." The two cop characters were confirmed as being in a romantic relationship in the last episode. In the final episode of "Legend of Korra", Korra and Asami were confirmed as a couple in the last few seconds. In "Good Luck, Charlie" they featured two moms in the last season, And now we have Adventure Time, finishing off its seventh season, and possibly getting ready to wrap things up. Or at least it's in the second half of its lifetime. So maybe that's why they're getting more explicit with the whole bubbline scenario. When the show is about to end, They might finally reveal that, It's the only way they can do it without losing money, and it's the only way other shows are starting to do it. But you know what, I'm getting a bit frustrated waiting for this pairings painfully slow burn of a relationship. Maybe I'll just stick to "Steven Universe" for my queer ships. So Princess Bubblegum and Marceline: Just good gal pals? Super bisexual lovers? Easy to draw fanart? Either way, Adventure Time is an extremely complex show with hardcore, Overarching themes and principles. On its exterior, it seems like a dumb show about a rabbit and a dog with no pupils, and maybe it kind of is. However, its broadest emotional moments, pressing drama, and 11 minute episodes more confusing than the book of revelation But in the end, Princess Bubblegum and Marceline. Are they gay? You decide. Bloopers!
